Riverdale season 4 episode 7 review: The Ice Storm

Tensions rise as an ice storm brings friends, families and foes together in Riverdale’s Thanksgiving episode. Who reaches a breaking point?

As a category 4 ice storm — yes, apparently, ice storm have categories, too — approaches Riverdale, Betty heads over to Stonewall Prep for a weekend of sleuthing with Jug, and Cheryl goes to extreme lengths to get her Aunt Cricket out of her life once and for all.

Meanwhile, FP struggles with his identity as he’s forced to work for Hiram, the new mayor, once again. Plus, Dodger Dickinson’s family is out for blood — Archie’s specifically.

Here’s a look at what went down in “The Ice Storm.”

A Game of Blossoms

It says a lot about Cheryl’s arc this season that it seemed entirely plausible that she turned her dead Uncle Bedford into meat pies and served them to her Aunt Cricket and Cousin Fester.

In reality, Cheryl’s very clearly Game of Thrones-inspired scheme was a fake-out, sold by a well-placed ring in a lamb pie, a cameo by Jason and a maybe, actually true family story of the Blossoms of yore pulling a Donner Party their first winter after landing in the New World.

Cheryl succeeds in sending her relatives packing; and in a sweet moment, Cheryl tells Toni she loves her, and Toni tells Cheryl she loves her, too. What would be sweeter is Cheryl and Toni going to therapy because Cheryl’s mental health should be important. But this is Riverdale, so Cheryl’s mental health is really only important when it needs to be sensationalized for the sake of the plot.

A Deep-Fried Thanksgiving

So it hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it’s quite obvious that Hiram had one of his henchmen beat Dodger almost to death and plant his body outside the community center for Archie to find, which quite conveniently also makes the center a crime scene. Hiram orders FP to shut it down, and FP relays the message to Archie but tells him to defy Hiram and open for Thanksgiving as planned, so the neighborhood kids have a safe place to go.

But things go south when Dodger’s mother and brothers crash, demanding at gunpoint to know who put Dodger in the hospital. Archie agrees to “confess” if she agrees to leave everyone else alone, but suddenly the kids start “confessing.” Mrs. Dickinson is still determined to kill Archie, but a loud bang distracts her long enough for Archie, Veronica and Mary to fight back and sending the family fleeing. Unfortunately, Dodger also flees from the hospital.

As it turns out, the distraction was the deep-fried turkey — an Andrews family tradition started by Fred — exploding. Mary tells Archie it was Fred protecting them, and Archie gets an idea. To honor his father, he puts up a plaque and portrait of Fred at the center.

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Dangerous Liaisons

In a rather bold storyline for the #MeToo era, Riverdale alleges Mr. Chipping was a statutory rapist who killed himself after Donna, the student with whom he was having an affair, said she wanted to break it off. I say bold because the show suggests that Donna isn’t telling the truth. At least, Betty and Jug certainly have doubts and suspect Donna and Brett may have been part of a plot to drive Mr. Chipping to suicide.

Betty tells Jughead to bring his concerns to the Headmaster, but Donna beats him to the punch. What we know for sure is that someone is watching Jughead via a secret recording device in his dorm. But who? And how soon will Jughead find the device?

The Serpent Sheriff

After almost killing Hiram… again (this time at La Bonne Nuit), FP decides he’s done being Mr. Nice Guy. He figures if someone as corrupt as Hiram can be mayor, then he can be sheriff and a Southside Serpent. Ok, FP, you do you, but… are the Serpents still a thing? We haven’t seen them in a while. Just saying.

Did you enjoy this week’s episode of Riverdale? Let us know in the comments below!